UAE | General
Family answers call of open road to see the world
The Le Bourg family travels in a hippie-like white van decorated with flowers and adorned with the words "around the world". While the idea of touring the world for two years sounds bohemian, Gregory Le Bourg is quick to dispell the idea that the trip with his wife and children is nothing but an extended holiday.
- By Rania Habib, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 March 17, 2007
- Image Credit: Ravindranath/Gulf News
- Gregory Le Bourg with his wife Isabelle and children Margot, Marie and Eve near their caravan in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi: The Le Bourg family travels in a hippie-like white van decorated with flowers and adorned with the words "around the world". While the idea of touring the world for two years sounds bohemian, Gregory Le Bourg is quick to dispell the idea that the trip with his wife and children is nothing but an extended holiday.
"It feels and sounds like a vacation, but of course it's not," he said. "We cook, we clean, we make the children study, we maintain our van."
With their three children in tow, Gregory and his wife Isabelle left the comforts of their home and jobs in Paris to discover new cultures and experience the life of nomads.
Margot, 10, Marie, 7, and baby Eve, 18 months, have been on the road since last March with their parents, and the Le Bourg family now has passed through 15 countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Oman and the UAE.
"Isabelle is a freelance landscape architect and I am a telecommunications engineer; of course it was hard, because you leave your financial and intellectual comforts.
"I am on a two-year paternity leave, so I am not paid, but I do have a guaranteed job when I get back," added Gregory. "We have a house in Paris which we rent out, so with that money we pay off our credit and we use it to travel and cover our expenses."
The Le Bourgs travel in their trusty van and trailer. A typical day involves going out to tour the city or village they are in, lunch at a local restaurant, homework for the girls who study through correspondence, cooking dinner and putting the youngsters to sleep. "We have dinner with local families, or the girls play with children, or even in Oman, we attended a traditional wedding," said Gregory.
The family is off to India next and then Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, New Zealand, Australia, North America, Mexico and Latin America.
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